20 October 2009

There are several important issues on the ballot November 3rd, and I have read most of the ballot language and have decided how I am voting on every issue. But none of them is as important as issue 9. Not because I believe the streetcar is the answer to everything. Not because I believe passenger rail to Columbus and Cleveland will solve that many transit problems. Not even because I love the Zoo Train. The reason is because if issue Nine passes, rail transit is demoted below all other types of transit, especially those that use asphalt and gasoline.

But roads, especially construction of new roads, already have priority over any other type of construction. I was talking with a manager of a Cincinnati Suburb recently, and he was lamenting the fact that newer areas like Mason are getting all kinds of Federal and State money to build new infrastructure, but his community cannot get any funding to repair existing sewers, roads and storm systems. The system is already built in favor of sprawl and new asphalt. Why should Cincinnati write such lopsided priorities into our City Charter?

Cincinnati has been on its knees for a long time. Crawling forward while other cities are up and running. I sense that things are on the cusp of really changing, perhaps changing in a fundamental way.